The Efficacy And Fairness Of The Electoral College

Despite the Electoral College system being founded by the founding fathers in America and being there as long as the Constitution exists, many people still do not have sufficient knowledge on how it works. The Electoral College does not provide honest presidential elections rather it has the potential to undo the will of people at any point from the selection of electors to the vote tallying in Congress (Shaw, 3). Electoral College in the United States has played a major role in depressing the voter's turnout. Every State is given an equal number of electoral votes despite the population and in turn, the system has put in place no measure to encourage the voters to take part in the elections. Besides, the system distorts

In June of 1804 the states had ratified the Twelfth Amendment which enacted the Electoral College in time for the 1804 election. When election time comes, Americans vote for the President and Vice President who are chosen by Presidential electors, who as a whole are known as the Electoral College. As a decision was needed for a method of choosing candidates, the Constitutional Convention of 1787 contemplated many different ways of electing the President, but toward the end of the proposals and ideas the matter had to be taken to the Committee of Eleven on Postponed Matters which is the committee who conceived the original Electoral College. In recent years, much debate has been stirring regarding whether or not the Electoral College has a place within this country's elections. For many states this method of tallying and casting votes is great because every state receives a minimum of three electoral votes considering each state has two senators and at least one representative (Lewis). However, these minimum electoral votes make the distribution of electoral college votes uneven throughout the fifty states, making each American citizen's vote count less or much more which is cause for change. If the information on these weighted votes is analyzed it can be concluded that states with a population similar to Wyoming has one “elector” for every 177, 556 persons while Texas has one “elector” for every 715,499 persons. While the Electoral College has worked for generations, there are some negative factors that give cause to abolish this practice, such that are; faithless electors, the winner take all system, and finally, safe and swing states.

The Electoral College makes it possible for citizens’ votes in certain states to essentially not matter at all. Since all of the electoral votes go toward the candidate that wins the popular vote in a state, if a state has a majority of people who vote for a certain party and a voter votes for the other party, his vote does not have any effect on the election outcome. The Electoral College system is leaving hundreds of thousands of vote’s discounted and irrelevant. The Electoral College twists each vote’s worth per state, causing the nation’s desires to be misrepresented. The Electoral College does not always show a distribution of support. A candidate could win the electoral votes

When the Constitutional Convention gathered in 1784 they had the difficult task of determining how our government should be assembled and what systems we should use to elect them. They quickly decided congress should have the powers to pass laws and the people should elect these people to ensure they are following the will of the people. But who should elect the president?

The Electoral College is the system the United States have used to elect the President for the past two hundred years. In this essay, the reader will see that although it did the best way to represent the will of the American people, and in this essay a better alternative will be proposed to the reader. The Electoral college was created in September sixth, nineteen-eighty-seven, and was described as (founder definition) and was meant to allow a stronger South, who by using the three-fifths compromise of 1787 to allow themselves more votes and ensure they are given the most federal power (Amar). This paper will show the reader that the Electoral College is flawed in the way that minority candidates can be elected, less populated states are overrepresented, and swing states are given the most attention.

This past election has raised several questions and issues, one of them being on the effectiveness of the Electoral College. Though Clinton won the popular vote with a margin of 2,868,692 votes, Trump won the presidency because his electoral votes were greater. Many were confused as to how this could happen, but looking at a map of the U.S. county-wise, it is somewhat more believable. Most of Clinton’s votes were concentrated in major cities,unlike Trump’s which were more widespread. This allowed him to cast a wider net to collect more electoral votes. Despite this being the reasoning behind it, many question if this is the right path. In truth, the Electoral college system is very faulty in the sense that it misrepresents a large portion of American Citizens. Therefore, it requires several changes, i.e. converting to a proportional system rather than winner-take-all, to be made so it could better reflect the will of the people, without dismissing the entire establishment as a whole.

We have a system of government called a Representative Democracy - where citizens vote for a representative to pass certain laws for them or elect president. Come election time, it can easily be mistaken or unknown, that we don’t in fact directly vote for president. America is not a pure Democracy, but a Democratic Republic or Representative Democracy where electors represent each state. When Americans vote for a president, they are actually voting for presidential electors or representatives. These people pledge to vote for the candidate that gets the popular vote in their state. How this about was through the proposal, known as the Virginia Plan, which “provided for a system of representation in the national legislature based on the population of each state,” (44, American Government, Power and Purpose.) The outcome of this proposal and debate was the Great Compromise. The amount of electors each of the 50 states have coincides with how many congressional members there are in each state. Every state has two senators and a delegation in the house of representatives based on the state’s population. For instance, California is the largest state with 53 representatives and 2 senators totaling it to electors 55 electors. Whereas, Hawaii, only has 2 representatives and 2 senators giving it 4 electors in total. Stated in the book, Social Education, vol. 72, p. 304, “Each state has the same number of electors as the total combined number of its senators and representatives in Congress; the District of Columbia also has electors, whose number is the same as the number allocated to the state with the smallest population (Wyoming, which has 3). A presidential candidate needs to obtain at least 270 of the 538 electoral votes to

Certain philosophies of the Electoral College infringe on the democracy that the United States of America stands for; however, the Electoral College was put in place by the Founding Fathers for a reason, and under the Constitution that reason should be respected. American Democracy suffers under the overbearing nature of this voting system, but it is a fact that a pure democracy would never work. Under this system, there would always be an inferior minority. Reforming the system is a solution to this problem of whether or not the Electoral College should continue or cease to exist. There should still be a system of electors, but instead of the warped winner-take-all system, the votes should be given proportionally to the popular vote. This

“The Electoral College system further distorts the one-person, one-vote principle of democracy because electoral votes are not distributed according to population. Every state gets one electoral vote for each member of its delegation to the House of Representatives and each state also gets two “bonus” electors representing its two senators” (10 reasons why the Electoral College is a problem).Whether they have a high echelon or low one in this country they should be able to have their votes matter. The popular vote allows parties to not have to campaign in lesser known states. “It distorts the presidential campaign, as alluded to yesterday, by incentivizing the parties to write off the more than 40 states (plus the District of Columbia) that they know they either can’t win or can’t lose. Among the states that, in recent history, don’t get campaign visits or TV ads” (10 reasons why the Electoral College is a problem).

“Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy.” These words from the Greek philosopher Plato summarize the most fundamental concern of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention when they considered what the best way to conduct presidential elections would be. While, in concept, democracy sounds like the fairest form of government, in practice, it is less than ideal. Fear of “tyranny of the majority” prompted discussion over how the president should be elected. The Founders chose the Electoral College—which incorporates democracy, federalism, and republicanism—for presidential selection, because it provided for the best balance of power. The Electoral College was the product of no small amount of debate during the Constitutional

Although controversial, the Electoral College has both advantages and disadvantages. In his series on Exploring Constitutional Law, Douglas O. Linder, explains the Electoral College protects minorities from the majority. He shows that the states are important in electing our president. However, he states that most Americans think that the popular vote makes more sense (n.d). A president can lose the popular vote and win the election, which some people think is unfair. Still, as the adage goes, "You don't fix what ain't

The Electoral College began as a solution to the argumentation of how the United States should elect an executive during the Constitutional Convention in 1787. This system to the election provides a way for citizens to have an influential impact while also providing those within politics to hold some power, which may help guide and provide more insight on political knowledge. The Electoral College helps represent minorities’ interests, which help to benefit different groups of people allowing them to hold power. This system benefits the U.S. in helping it stay strongly together by forcing a distribution of the popular support. The Electoral College has been beneficial to our government by keeping a well-balanced system of representation within

The United States has used the Electoral College as a way to elect the president for over two hundred years and it is a main reason the smaller states have a chance to voice their opinion. The Electoral College has caused great debate within the US as to whether or not it is a political anachronism. The Electoral College consists of 538 total votes which are then divided up based on the population of each state and at least 270 electoral votes are required for a president to win the election. A consensus is taken every ten years to see if the population of each state has increased or decreased therefore changing the number of electoral votes it will receive. Some people argue that if the majority of the population wants a candidate to be president then that is the best way to elect someone but that is not necessarily true.

The Electoral College has been losing favor for years, but recent elections have created all-new debates about its use and value. The institution has existed almost since American elections have existed, and it is deeply intertwined with the issue of political parties. American voting is highly bureaucratized. The Electoral College betrays American values of majority rule: a candidate can win the election without a majority of popular votes; some states are overrepresented; and a large number of citizens get left out, thus, the Electoral College should be abolished or reformed.

According to recent surveys, the role of the Electoral College is enveloped in mystery as far as the ordinary American voter is concerned. There have been issues pertaining to the legitimacy of the Electoral College and its effect on the democratic voting process. This work seeks to elicit the challenges brought about by the college as well as their implications on the larger political community. To this effect, this work has analyzed political texts to understand the effects of the college on American politics. In addition, this work has given evidence suggesting that the college causes inadequate distribution of power among states, it also allows for minimal oversight as well as undue influence over electors. Furthermore, it creates room